First off, a big thank you to your spouse for their service! I served in Iraq and Afghanistan, retired Army.

Second, with the information overload that we get today it's hard to make a good decision on anything. We have news reports putting out inaccurate information with no fact checking or credible sources, it's like who can get the "story" out first to get the ratings. You never get the whole story until you do the research yourself. I don't knee jerk react to "news" as it's just a crap show of nothing. I don't like media telling me what I think, I am not a sheep. Like you said, people don't change much and they would believe almost anything that you tell them. BTW, you have won a lottery you didn't enter and send me money so we can get this processed.

My mother would say “We just need to bomb that whole county”, she was talking about Iraq. I had to explain to her that there were not only bad guys there, but good people just like many others in the world trying to just live their life in peace and raise a family. I told her not to judge a majority, based on the actions of a few. She was a sheep, lead astray by the media’s constant showing of explosions and gunfire, until I told her of the kids playing, farmers and ranchers with their animals, merchants, etc. all just living a somewhat normal life same as ours here, just in a different part of the world. Just because a few people do some bad things, this is not the majority.

Raising the age limit on buying guns… we raising the driving age too? How about smoking? Drinking? Selective service? All very dangerous and hazardous things, which young people experience and encounter every day, but no change to that? Why is that? All these thing kill and hurt people everyday…hmm. Maybe because it’s not in mainstream media. No way, we would know because the media would let us know.

From the IIHS website: A total of 37,461 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2016. From the CDC website: More than 480,000 deaths annually (including deaths from secondhand smoke). From the NIAAA website: An estimated 88,0008 people (approximately 62,000 men and 26,000 women8) die from alcohol-related causes annually, making alcohol the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States. The first is tobacco, and the second is poor diet and physical inactivity. From the CDC website: All firearms death in 2015, 36,252

Do we the people need a 30 round magazine? Several magazines? Maybe not, maybe so, depends on the situation. Am I hunting with it or defending my family with it? I would be just fine hunting with a 5 or 10 round magazine, but middle of the night unknown number of people break in, then I want a 100+ drum mag and you are getting every round! Just saying. :)

At the end of the day, it comes down to what I believe is responsibility. Responsibility of the parent(s) to supervise and teach their children right from wrong. Unfortunately our American culture has changed so much that majority of adults today raising these kids don’t instill this value in them and society goes along and blames everything else, but what is truly wrong, lack of responsibility. Anyone read that the Florida boy’s guardians were charged with anything? Yeah, I didn’t find anything either, but somewhat in their defense they only had him for a little while. But none the less, someone thought it was ok for him to have this tool of destruction, I say tool, because it is a tool, he was the weapon. He could have just as easily took a knife and slit people throats as they went by, or built some sort of device, to take out a lot more. It a sad state of chaos we live in, or should I say survive in now a days. Either way no matter what side of the fence you are on, something has to change and we all need to find that common ground to be agree upon.